Anonymous wrote:Are there any parents of PT players?

No. All of those players are orphans.

Are there any parents of PT players?

It would be interesting dynamics between the PT players and their DA teammates vs them and Club teammates, to say the least. Some may have a hard time to adjust if was FT previously.

To answer the question, yes it can be worth it if your child is a very good player and just missed the cut by joining late or if they were developed by the club but just on the outside of making it, but are improving rapidly. It’s not worth it if your player is middling and not near the level of the full time players. Deep down, you should know which case you are in. The second is simply revenue generation for the club.

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if anyone here had/heard experiences regarding the DA’s programming for the so-called “part-time” player? For both boys and girls. Is it beneficial to the players’ development? Or not worth it at all.

In general, the DA clubs abuse the development player label but some clubs are better than others in this regard. The GDA used to have a stat on their page about how many games DP's (that was the designation last year) have played. IIRC it was in the 2-3 game range. So it's really part time. At clubs like FCV, that number last year was closer to zero. A good indicator is how many full time players a club has on its roster. If it is 18 or higher, you can be pretty sure that DP's are not going to play much. This is pretty much all the GDA clubs/teams. Lots of generalizations here, your mileage may vary.

It makes sense in concept but it's not really used that much.

For the pro clubs it's tough because they don't really have anywhere else for those kids to play. It's kind of on the player to find a team that's willing to let them play, knowing that they could miss games if they get rostered for the DA team, which could happen at the last minute. From what I've seen that doesn't really happen. The only exception is maybe the U16/U17 age groups, where a few players on the U16 EDP team might be listed as PT on the U17 DA roster.

For the DA teams that do have club B teams it seems like it would be easier, but they don't use it. Loudoun, Bethesda and Armour boys don't have any PT players at all. Arlington only has a couple. WS-BA girls has a few on their U14s, but they're the exception.

My guess is this is one of those things that seemed like a great idea from on high (US Soccer DA HQ staff) - especially cause they expanded the program this year - but the reality on the ground must be a lot different.

Anonymous wrote:Wonder if anyone here had/heard experiences regarding the DA’s programming for the so-called “part-time” player? For both boys and girls. Is it beneficial to the players’ development? Or not worth it at all.

Depends on the club and the actual plan for the player. Some part-time players are nothing more than roster depth while others are players the club/coach really likes but they may need more game time than can be provided by the DA/ECNL team.

Wonder if anyone here had/heard experiences regarding the DA’s programming for the so-called “part-time” player? For both boys and girls. Is it beneficial to the players’ development? Or not worth it at all.